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IMDbPro

Winona Ryder

  • Actress
  • Producer
  • Director
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00054
Winona Ryder
Here's a look back at the various roles Winona Ryder has played throughout her acting career.
Play clip1:40
Winona Ryder | Career Retrospective
99+ Videos
99+ Photos
Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, and was named after a nearby town, Winona, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Cynthia (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller. Her father's family is Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California which had no electricity. She is the goddaughter of Timothy Leary. Her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and once edited a book called "Shaman Woman Mainline Lady", an anthology of writings on the drug experience in literature, which included one piece by Louisa May Alcott. Ryder would later play the lead role of Josephine March in the adaptation of this author's novel Little Women (1994).

Ryder moved with her parents to Petaluma, California when she was ten and enrolled in acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. At age 13, she had a video audition to the film Desert Bloom (1986), but did not get the role. However, director David Seltzer spotted her and cast her in Lucas (1986). When telephoned to ask how she would like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels album was playing the background. Ryder was selected for the role of Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Part III (1990), but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) and Mermaids (1990) back-to-back. She said she did not want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. She later made The Age of Innocence (1993), which was directed by Martin Scorsese, whom she believes to be "the best director in the world".
BornOctober 29, 1971
  • More at IMDbPro
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    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornOctober 29, 1971
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00054
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Nominated for 2 Oscars

Before They Were Famous: Actors' Early Roles

Before They Were Famous: Actors' Early Roles

See photos of celebrities like Jenna Ortega and Noah Centineo before they hit the big-time, and revisit some of their earliest onscreen roles.
See the full gallery
[object Object]
Photos

Photos792

Winona Ryder in Stranger Things (2016)
Winona Ryder and David Harbour in Chapter Nine: The Piggyback (2022)
Winona Ryder and David Harbour in Chapter Nine: The Piggyback (2022)
Winona Ryder and David Harbour in Chapter Nine: The Piggyback (2022)
Winona Ryder, Tom Wlaschiha, David Harbour, and Brett Gelman in Stranger Things (2016)
Winona Ryder in Chapter One: The Hellfire Club (2022)
Winona Ryder and Brett Gelman in Chapter Six: The Dive (2022)
Winona Ryder in Night on Earth (1991)
Winona Ryder in Night on Earth (1991)
Winona Ryder in Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Winona Ryder in Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Winona Ryder and Sigourney Weaver in Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Known for

Claire Danes, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst, and Trini Alvarado in Little Women (1994)
Little Women
7.3
  • Jo March
  • 1994
Christina Ricci, Winona Ryder, Cher, and Bob Hoskins in Mermaids (1990)
Mermaids
6.7
  • Charlotte Flax
  • 1990
Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Girl, Interrupted
7.3
  • Susanna
  • 1999
Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Edward Scissorhands
7.9
  • Kim
  • 1990

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Haunted Mansion
    • Post-production
  • Winona Ryder, Tom Wlaschiha, David Harbour, Brett Gelman, Maya Hawke, Jamie Campbell Bower, Natalia Dyer, Joseph Quinn, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Priah Ferguson, and Eduardo Franco in Stranger Things (2016)
    Stranger Things
  • Winona Ryder in Gone in the Night (2022)
    Gone in the Night
  • Timothée Chalamet in Cadillac: How Do You Drive with Scissorhands? (2021)
    Cadillac: How Do You Drive with Scissorhands?
  • Sarah Cooper in Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine (2020)
    Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine
  • The Plot Against America (2020)
    The Plot Against America
  • Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in Destination Wedding (2018)
    Destination Wedding
  • Oscar Isaac in Show Me a Hero (2015)
    Show Me a Hero
  • Winona Ryder and Peter Sarsgaard in Experimenter (2015)
    Experimenter
  • Scorsese's Women (2014)
    Scorsese's Women
  • Drunk History (2013)
    Drunk History
  • Winona Ryder and Bill Nighy in Turks & Caicos (2014)
    Turks & Caicos
  • Jason Statham, James Franco, and Izabela Vidovic in Homefront (2013)
    Homefront
  • Official poster for the HERE WITH ME music video.
    The Killers: Here with Me
  • Frankenweenie (2012)
    Frankenweenie
    • (voice)
  • The Letter
    The Letter

Producer

  • Independent Lens (1999)
    Independent Lens
  • The Day My God Died (2003)
    The Day My God Died
  • Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted (1999)
    Girl, Interrupted

Director

  • Victoria Williams: Nature's Way (1995)
    Victoria Williams: Nature's Way

Videos156

Winona Ryder | Career Retrospective
Clip 1:40
Winona Ryder | Career Retrospective
Questions We Have About "Stranger Things" Season 4
Clip 3:35
Questions We Have About "Stranger Things" Season 4
What Roles Has Winona Ryder Turned Down?
Clip 3:13
What Roles Has Winona Ryder Turned Down?
Winona Ryder: Movie & TV Moments
Clip 1:47
Winona Ryder: Movie & TV Moments
What We Know About "Stranger Things" Season 3... So Far
Clip 3:05
What We Know About "Stranger Things" Season 3... So Far
Star Trek: "Kirk Meets McCoy"
Clip 0:44
Star Trek: "Kirk Meets McCoy"
Homefront
Clip 0:48
Homefront
Homefront
Clip 0:46
Homefront
Frankenweenie
Clip 1:19
Frankenweenie
Frankenweenie
Clip 0:48
Frankenweenie
Frankenweenie
Clip 0:37
Frankenweenie
Frankenweenie
Clip 1:22
Frankenweenie

Personal details

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    • October 29, 1971
    • Winona, Minnesota, USA
    • Uri Horowitz(Sibling)
  • Other works
    Narrated the audio book version of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - The Definitive Edition, published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, August, 1995 (ISBN: 0-553-47347-6)
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Biographical Movie
    • 4 Print Biographies
    • 1 Portrayal
    • 20 Interviews
    • 40 Articles
    • 12 Pictorials
    • 84 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Suffers from insomnia. She allegedly has had a habit of talking on the phone with actor Al Pacino, who also suffers from insomnia.
  • Quotes
    When asked why is she always playing teenagers, during a press junket for Mermaids (1990): Like, I'm nineteen. What am I supposed to do, play a judge?!
    • Frequently plays a character who writes. In most of her films, she has played a journalist, a reporter, a writer or just a teenager who writes in a journal or diary.
    • Stranger Things
      (2016)
      $9,500,000 (Season 5)

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